Paul Hastings partner and 2009 OCBJ Women in Business winner Renee Gabbard’s emotional roller-coaster took a big upswing recently. Wearing a wig, sans eyebrows and lashes and still weak from nearly five months of chemotherapy for breast cancer, she sat before the U.S. Supreme Court as the justices certified her to practice before them. Making it extra special, she said, was Chapman U Law Prof John Eastman, a former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas. He traveled to Washington, D.C., with her and her husband, John Gabbard, (Miramar Property Holdings) to move her nomination. It was a rewarding trip for Eastman, too: “It was like being nominated by a rock star and the place was abuzz with John’s run for California attorney general,” Gabbard said. That evening they went to the Capitol Hill Club for a reception in Eastman’s honor thrown by former U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese …
Anaheim startup Unique Retreat is one of a few companies that have begun installing sleeping rooms at U.S. airports—travelers pay by the hour to work or nap in privacy. The company, backed by entrepreneurs Greg Lovett, Solomon Shacter and Michael Valdes, is putting in 14 rooms at the international terminal of San Francisco International; each room has a chair, adjustable desk, bed, TV and wireless Internet access … What Bill Rams learned from Facebook: “March 18 is the date of birth of OC’s two most prominent electeds, the sheriff and DA” …
GOP strategist Karl Rove will be at the grand opening of the new OC Republican Party headquarters in Tustin on Saturday. “Very high tech. Mortgage is cheaper than rent,” says Chairman Scott Baugh …
U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint keynotes the Lincoln Club of OC’s annual dinner April 22, the second straight South Carolina pol to do so. Things haven’t gone so well for the prior speaker, S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford …
Don’t look for Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle at the LC dinner. He’ll be at the Grove of Anaheim, getting roasted by Bizpac, political arm of the OC Biz Council …
GOP gubernatorial candidates Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman traded punches pretty evenly at the New Majority-sponsored debate at the Samueli Theater in Costa Mesa. But Poizner had the best jab, after Whitman mentioned something she’d heard on National Public Radio: “Another difference between Meg and me. I don’t listen to NPR.” In the press gallery, OC Register columnist Brian Calle explained why he carries two BlackBerrys: “That way I can type on one while talking on the other.”
